Shifting Seas
'''Shifting Seas '''is a blogfic by Streampaw. It is about a group of shapeshifters who live on a rocky island, but do not know of their abilities until a newcomer washes up on the shore. Join here Blurb We stand by the sea, and it's where we belong. Our homes carved into the cliffside, our clawmarks lashed into frozen waves, the sky watches us; our island is the sea's domain, and it cannot interfere. We stand on spires at sunset and toss fragrant leaves into the water in summer and hold races against frozen waves in the winter. Perfect, and just the way we know it. ...Except it's not. Chapter One She woke up to light. It seemed like sunlight, golden and warm, but blinding all the same. She blinked, once, twice, trying to see something through the brightness that enveloped her, but there was nothing there. She felt wind in her fur, something soft underneath her paws. “You wake her up.” She heard someone say. She tried to reach out, but the voice was echoing and distorting, sounding both far away and right beside her at the same time. “No way! What if she’s dead?” a horrified voice whispers, and the first sighs. “If she was, why would we have brought her here in the first place?” A furry paw poked her in the ears, and she jerked back, grumbling. “Um… Hello?” A new voice asked. “Waking up would be helpful right now…” Waking up… Instinctively, her eyes snapped open, and she bolted upright. “W-wha…?” She mumbled, looking around. To her left, a black she-cat with a scar on her shoulder, and to her right, a tan coloured she-cat with a worried expression. A calico also stood to the side, scowling. “See? I told you she’s alive!” The black she-cat grinned. The tan she-cat winced. “Not so loud, Darkie!” she said. “Are you…okay?” She asked worriedly. “I think so…” Her head spun a little; it seemed she’d been in a lying position for a while. She tried to take in her surroundings, but the others seemed to block the view from her. “Now that we’ve established that she’s alive,” The calico finally spoke, with a frown. “Could we get started with introductions?” “Oh, right!” Darkie laughed. “I’m Darkie, and this is my friend Fawny.” She gestured to the tan she-cat, who blushed. “So, um, your name is…?” Her name? She blinked. The image of running water, clear and bubbling, came to her mind. Small but full of life, tumbling and rushing down the side of a hill; it seemed like she could watch for hours… “Um… A reply would be nice.” Fawny began, embarassed. She blushed, casting the image out of her mind. She shouldn’t think about such things now. “S-Stream.” She said, without thinking. “Good, at least it’s not a nameless.” The calico remarked. Looks like this is the grumpy one, Stream thought. “I’m Hazel, by the way.” “She’s not always this grumpy.” Fawny said, as if reading Stream’s mind. “We’ve had a lot of arrivals recently… How many was it, Darkie?” “Honey, two months ago. And Leaf a few days before that. Not to mention Brook last month…” Darkie said. She cast a look at Hazel, who was busy cleaning one paw. “What?” Hazel grumbled with a twitch of her tail. “Nothing… just thought you might have something to say.” Fawny said with a giggle. “Actually, I do. When are we going to show her around?” “Oh.” Fawny’s face fell. “I was hoping the less awkward part of talking and getting to know each other came first, before having to introduce everyone else…” “They can introduce themselves, you know!” Darkie laughed, and Fawny blushed again. As they talked, Stream finally got a good look of her surroundings. She was in a small, enclosed cave, with a small hole in the side that let light in and an entrance framed with branches and twigs. One side of the cave was filled with small hollows, where assorted leaves and berries lay. Underneath her was a layer of moss and feathers in some sort of dip in the stone, kept enclosed by twigs. “Hey.” Fawny gave her a nudge. “We’ll be taking you on a tour of our camp.” “Oh- um- okay.” Stream said, standing up. Hazel led the way. The cave was halfway up a cliff that seemed to reach up to the sky, although the other weren’t fazed at all. There were plenty of others about; it seemed- cats were everywhere, some with prey in their jaws, others with bundles of twigs. Thankfully, they didn’t seem to be staring. “Watch your step!” Darkie said cheerfully, leaping over a crumbly part of the stone path they were taking to get down. Stream stumbled along a little, almost crashing into the black she-cat. “So… What is this place?” She asked. Darkie gave her a weird look. Oh look, you’ve done it again. Congratulations on making things awkward again, Stream! “Didn’t I tell you?” She blinked, stopping. “Um… Would ‘no’ be an okay answer?” Stream asked, when a screech sounded from somewhere below. She froze and suddenly there was air underneath her paws. She turned round, and found herself lurching dangerously forward as Fawny crashed into her, laughing like crazy. “W-what’s happening?” She asked, trying not to frown. She found that out for herself as a white she-cat jumped into view from below, letting out screeches of laughter at random intervals while talking too fast for Stream to catch what she was saying. But then, the she-cat was acting like she just hit her head. “…How do I not know this?!” She was saying to the cats around her, a mottled gray she-cat and a tortoiseshell with white patches, the gray one looking away with a frown. “Sometimes, Pero, I wish we weren’t your friends and you wouldn’t be as crazy.” the gray cat said rather seriously, but Pero just shrugged it off. “Sorry!” The tortoiseshell called up, rather embarassed. “She’s usually way quieter than this…” Other cats were beginning to gather round at the sound of Pero’s laughter, and Stream shifted awkwardly. How many cats were there? How was she going to remember all their names? What if they ended up hating her? On the other paw, Pero seemed to have noticed everyone was watching, and quickly shut her mouth, although the chatter of others was masking it up anyway. Hazel let out a long, deep sigh. “Be quiet!” She yelled. “If you don’t mind, we’re having a tour here, and I’m pretty sure you’re all supposed to be doing something outside the camp?” “Aw come on, Spotzel, it’s not everyday somebody wakes up from a week-long coma after being washed up from the sea!” A golden tabby yelled as the four of them made their way down. “Week-long coma?” Stream cast a glance at Darkie. “What?” “You were unconcious when Juni and Lion fished you out of the sea.” She explained. “So we let Moss and Brookie take you to the medicine cave, and then Fawny basically took care of you for the next week or so.” Stream tilted her head at the mention of new names and Fawny blushed as she heard this, but Darkie just grinned and continued. “You should’ve seen her, she even stayed to up to watch you sleep in case there was another storm! In fact, I’m pretty sure-” Darkie continued, but Stream’s attention was elsewhere. Fawny? Had been watching her in her sleep? Normally, she would be pretty creeped out, but this time she found it kinda… cute. “Oh come on, Fawny, it’s really obvious!” Darkie was saying. “Hey Stream, you know I’m pretty sure Fawny’s- mmph!” Her voice was muffled as Fawny waved her tail in Darkie’s face, blocking out her voice. Hazel whirled round and glared at them and Stream noticed the other cats were no longer gathered below them. “Oops.” Darkie giggled, which made Hazel glare even more, but she gave up and started laughing. Fawny just stared at Darkie with a fake angry look. “Oh come on, you know I wouldn’t really have said it!” “You might have.” Fawny shrugged, but smiled. “If you’re finished.” Hazel said in a serious tone, “We’ll be on our way to meet Flo and Icy.” “Who’s that?” Stream asked, as they stepped off the rocks and onto solid ground. “Flo’s super cool!” Darkie said first. “She’s one of the oldest members here, along with Icy. She runs the whole place and does leader stuff, which involves going around the whole island, which we’re not allowed to do-” “For a reason.” Hazel muttered, which Darkie ignored. “Anyway, she’s great- a bit like our mom, but Icy does that for her. Icy’s also kind of the leader, even though Shivy’s supposed to be the deputy, but Icy handles the taking-care-of-people-and-making-sure-they-don’t-freak-out-or-think-we’re-super-boring-and-stuff part. Shivy can be pretty serious sometimes, but she’s really nice as well-” “I think that’s enough.” Fawny said, although she meant it kindly. “We don’t want to confuse her…” “It’s okay, I’m not confused.” Stream said, and gave her a smile to prove it. “I think I’m used to long bits of info being thrown at me… well, before I came here.” She added, in case Darkie was offended. The black she-cat didn’t seem so, though, she just hummed a little. “Oh look, here they come now.” Hazel said with a sigh of relief, and the four of them stopped near a large, tall rock almost as high as where the four of them were before. Behind the rock were a few trees and bushes, and from that came two cats. “Hey Mom!” Darkie called to a black and white she-cat, who looked embarassed. That must be Icy, Stream thought. Next to her was a tall, rather imposing-looking silver-gray she-cat with green eyes. She looked pretty young for a leader in her opinion. “Hi! I’m Icy, and you can’t call me Mom.” Icy’s tone was friendly, but she said the last bit rather seriously while casting a look at Darkie. “I’m one of the healers, but I step in to help Flo sometimes.” “Hi, I’m Flo and I’m the boss. Welcome.” Flo said, in a very high-pitched and completely monotone voice, then stopped and froze. Stream blinked, wondering if it was a prank (mainly due to giggles from Darkie and Fawny beside her), before the leader laughed and returned to normal. “Don’t worry, I’m just joking. It’s the new members ritual. But yeah, I’m the leader of the group, mainly because Icy didn’t want to and because I was the oldest.” “There’s also Wint and Shock.” Icy pointed out. Must be other older members, Stream thought. “Apart from them.” Flo said, after a moment of thought and smiled. “I hope these three haven’t made you think we’re all crazy. If I recall correctly, you were supposed to be giving her a tour, not making everyone else stare at her.” “Sorry.” Fawny mumbled. “It’s okay, I’m joking.” She laughed. “Introductions can be really awkward sometimes. What’s your name?” “Stream.” She answered. She decided she liked Flo already, even if she joked a lot- she seemed mature, and she must have been capable if Darkie and the others liked her so much. “Alright. Your first duty will start tomorrow. These three should be able to tell you what to do. See you around then!” She left, along with Icy. “Is that really the new members ritual?” She asked Hazel, who seemed the most resposible out of the three and the least likely to play a prank on her. “You bet it is.” She grumbled, looking away as her friends started laughing. “Spotzel was so freaked out when she first came! She literally started screaming after two minutes.” explained Fawny, through laughter. Spotzel seemed be Hazel’s nickname, Stream thought. That was what the other cat had called her earlier, after all. “So would you, if you were new!” Hazel snapped. “And do you have to call me by that nickname?” “Well, it’s not an embarassing one.” Darkie shrugged. “Plus, you like it.” Spotzel shrugged back and continued the tour, ignoring any inside jokes the other two seemed to hint at, including ones about “foos” and many involving geese. Stream decided to use this oppurtunity to examine her surroundings. The part of the island she’d just come from had a rather rocky beach rather than sand, but thankfully her paws seemed to be used to it. They were now walking along a river towards some sparse woods, and on the left seemed to get thicker. “To the left is where we generally hunt.” Hazel said, extending a spotted paw towards the forest. “Where we were earlier was the camp, we’ll show you that later, seeing as we’ll be returning afterwards.” She padded along the river until they reached some stepping stones, where they leapt across. Unsurprisingly, the other three were quick and light on their feet, leaving Stream to trip, struggle and fail epically by smashing her face against a particularly large rock. “Are you okay?” asked Fawny, looking worried. “I’m fine, considering I just smashed my face into a stepping stone.” Stream replied, hissing at not so much the pain, but more the taste of moss and what was probably fish dung. “I’m fine.” She laughed as Fawny winced. “Really.” “You’ll get used to it.” Hazel said, her whiskers twitching in amusement. She had a funny look on her face, as though she was supressing laughter. “Go ahead and laugh.” Stream said, glancing at Darkie who was already giggling. “I don’t mind.” “Eh. I’m not going to.” The calico shrugged. “Only because you failed epically the first time you tried too.” Darkie reminded her, and she scowled. “There’s not really much to see here.” Spotzel said quickly, eager to change the subject. “It’s really just more forest, and a bit of hills. Behind the camp are some low mountains, but that’s pretty much it.” “There’s also a nice beach on the other side of the island, but we don’t-.” Darkie began, before stopping herself. “I mean, we’re not supposed to go there. Or talk about it. Or talk about why we ca-” She stopped herself again, looking around warily as though someone could pop up any minute and tell her off. “Like at all.” “Why?” Stream asked, before she could stop herself. Stream, you idiot! It’s probably for a reason! her mind yelled, and she shifted her paws awkwardly. “We found a dead body there.” Fawny whispered, glancing behind her nervously every now and then . “Apparently it had washed up from the sea.” “Another cat?” She whispered back, hoping it wasn’t a friend of theirs. Fawny didn’t reply, and gave a little terrified squeak instead, looking at her paws. Stream glanced at the other two. Spotzel looked away, her fur fluffing up rapidly, and even Darkie was unusually sober. Finally, Fawny spoke, her voice very quiet. “No. It was a human.” Blogclanners Featured * Spotzel (Hazel) * Icy (Ice- to avoid confusion when fawnpaw joins, sorry!) * Dewpaw (dew) * Juniperpool (Lark) * blazingfern (blazing) * Darkpaw (Darkie) * Honeypaw/Honeyflight (Honey) * Laurelcloud (Laurel) * Streampaw (Stream) * Mistleheart (Thrush) * Shiverfur (Shiver) * Lionpaw (Lion) * Silverpaw (Silv) * Willowlight (Willow) * Flo (Flo) * Flowerpaw (Rose) * Willowpaw (Wistep) * Dewpaw (Dew) * Bluefire (Leaf) * Bluepaw (Blue) * Swanfeather (Swan) * Mossball (Moss) * Otterpaw (Otter) * Flamepaw (Flamey) * Frostfeather (Frosty) * Jasminepaw (Brook) * Fawnpaw (Fawny) * Wavesplash (Wavey) * Thunderpaw (Thunder) * Sorrelpaw (Sorzi) * Duskpaw (Dusk) * Winterpaw (Winter) * Rainpaw (Rain) * Dawnlily (Lily) * Kinkpaw (Kinki) * Moonpaw (Moon) * Foxtail (Fox) Category:Fanfiction Category:Blogfic Category:In progress